Golf has become increasing popular through the years, and as a result more and more golfers are purchasing custom fit golf clubs. Custom fitting may be performed by a golfing professional, a fitting professional, or by a golf store employee. Many different fitting techniques can be employed to find golf clubs that are best suited to a particular golfer's needs. One golf club for which a professional fitting has become increasingly popular is the putter. Golfers now have a wide variety of a heads, grips, and shaft lengths to choose from when it comes to putters.
As shown in FIGS. 1–16, putters 10 are available in a number of different shapes and styles. The shapes shown in FIGS. 1–16 are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. As can be seen by comparing FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, putters having the same shape can be differentiated by the use of scribed lines 12, 14, 16, 18. These lines are typically used by the golfer to aim the ball. During a custom fitting, the fitter will determine which style of scribed line is most helpful for the golfer. For example, if a golfer tends to aim in one direction or another (i.e. to the left or to the right), a scribed line will often help the golfer aim straight. Fitters typically give a golfer a putter with a particular line combination and test the straightness of the golfer's putting.
For example, a golfer may be given a club with a single scribed line on the top of the putter (as shown at 12 in FIGS. 2, 6, 10, and 14). If the golfer putts straight then he or she can be fitted with a putter that has a single scribed line on the top of the putter. If the golfer putts to the left or right, the fitter can try the various other line combinations shown in FIGS. 1–16.
Of course, it would be very expensive and require significant storage area to maintain different putters with each of the various scribed line combinations. For this reason, it is preferable to only need one putter of each shape. The present invention provides apparatus that allows fitters to temporarily mark putters with scribed lines in order to determine which style of scribed line best suits a particular golfer.